The Prince George Cycling Club is halfway to reaching their funding goal to get more cyclists out on local trails.
On Wednesday, Cariboo-Prince George MP Dick Harris announced $38,625 from the federal government's Community Infrastructure Improvement Fund to support the expansion of the trail system at the Pidherny recreation site.
"This project is just one of the ways we plan to contribute to the health and well-being of local residents and the long-term economic health of the region," said Prince George Cycling Club president Jillian Merrick.
With the money, the club will complete a beginner trail for use in their Sprockids program and a 3.2-kilometre intermediate downhill trail - the longest in their network.
The total budget for the project is more than $77,000, explained the club's Pidherney trail director Liam Baker, and the group is looking to confirm the remainder of the funding next month.
The Pidherney network extends from the Foothills landfill to Pidherny Road, with trails extending to the cutbanks along North Nechako Road.
Officially sanctioned as a protected recreation site in 2010, the area has been the home to mountain bike trails since the mid-1990s and these two new trails have been earmarked as priorities for the cycling club from early on.
"One of the shortfalls of the rec site is it lacks intermediate- and beginner-level trails and most of the trails up there are advanced," said Baker. "This is just to increase our usership and provide opportunities for all types of riders."
Typically, the club has built trails on a volunteer basis, but this time the group decided to apply for funding to get the trail building completed by professionals after seeing the higher-quality work in neighbouring communities.
"The by-product of having a paid contractor do the work is that the volunteers are available to make other site improvements," Baker said.
The cycling club is hoping for a four-month construction period on the trails, beginning in May.
